As We Dream
by Pandora147
Summary: Later on, we'll conspire, as we dream by the fire. Fate works in strange ways, whether it be on New Years at a ski lodge or in another time and place. A Christmas one-shot. TxG.


**AS WE DREAM**

**AN ~** I wanted to have a Someday chapter to publish for Christmas but circumstances beyond my control have prevented this. So I threw this together instead.

Dedicated to all fangirls across the world. Happy holidays and best wishes for 2010.

**~ * ~ * ~**

"Attention passengers of United Flight 409 to Denver, scheduled for boarding at 4:55PM. We regretfully inform you that there has been a short delay and we ask you to refer to the departure boards and listen for future service announcements pertaining to the updated status on this flight. United apologises for the inconvenience and will keep you informed on the status of this flight."

Troy Bolton let out an irritated sigh. Christmas was turning out to be more hassle than it was worth. Sure, he had vacation time accrued but he didn't particularly want to take more than completely necessary. Basketball season never really came to a pause, even during the brief hiatus of official NCAA tournament games, NYU was hosting the holiday classic. Troy may not have been one of the players, watching their diets and on alcohol bans over the holiday period, but he took his job as a Public Relations executive for the basketball division of NYU Athletics very seriously. While colleagues had been engaging in extended Christmas celebrations throughout December, Troy had been spending long hours in the office and additional hours up late at night in his home study. He was the young gun on the team, and was incredibly vested and passionate about working his way up in the industry. And to him, that translated to capitalising upon every opportunity to impress.

He was flying home to Albuquerque on December 23rd, spending just four nights with his parents and family who he hadn't seen since March, before returning back to New York City late on the 27th. However he was more than a little agitated about the delay. He had 90 minutes layover in Denver before the connecting flight to Albuquerque which would bring him home by about 11pm. He was familiar with Denver and only had his carry-on luggage and so he was estimating that he could get by with twenty minutes lay over time between flights, maybe even fifteen since he was flying with United the whole way and they'd be aware of his itinerary and the delay. However the weather outside was looking ominous. A part of him wanted to just call his mother, apologise profusely, blame the airline, and cab it back from LaGuardia to his apartment in the lower west side of Manhattan where he could crack open a beer and flick on the television.

~ * ~

"Attention passengers of delayed United Flight 409 to Denver, originally scheduled for boarding at 4:55PM. The new scheduled boarding time is 5:25PM, in approximately 10 minutes. We ask passengers of Flight 409 to Denver to make their way to Gate 31 for boarding."

Gabriella Montez let out a sigh of relief, and promptly picked up her laptop case and swung the strap over her shoulder, picked up her purse and proceeded to move toward the new boarding gate. Upon hearing of the initial delay she'd began an organised and nail biting process while waiting for an update on the flight status. It was absolutely imperative that she got home for Christmas. She hadn't seen her mother for months, although the women were close and communicated on almost a daily basis. Gabriella Montez was a planner, and she'd been planning this trip for months. She had organised a whole ten glorious days off work, she'd arranged her meetings with her clients and all of her cases around this very vacation. Her immediate reaction to the initial call had been jumping into action – she'd marched up to the desk, made sure they were aware she had a connecting flight and needed to make that flight. After which point she'd gotten on her cell phone and made some enquiries about other flights leaving from Denver that could get her to her final destination – it was at this point that she discovered there were no such other flights that night and the next two the following morning were booked out and the best they could do was put her on standby. She'd taken a moment to do some deep breathing and remind herself that there may be no need to panic, that her flight may be called any moment and she'd be in Denver in more than enough time for the connection to Albuquerque – and it seemed that she'd been right to remain calm, since the flight had been called and things were set to move along. Nonetheless, she approached the desk again to remind them of her connecting flight, and again she was ensured that other passengers were in the predicament she was in and they would have more than enough time, especially as they were presently scheduled to disembark in Denver just across from her connecting flight.

The flight boarding was peaceful, the back half of the plane – where Gabriella was seated – being asked to board first. She'd contemplated purchasing first class tickets, she was making a fairly decent salary as a young up and coming constitutional lawyer, but she abhorred the idea of spending frivolously when she had no problem with coach seating. She reached her seat – 23A, a window seat on the right as she walked up the aisle – and found a young man already seated in the middle seat. This was her pet hate, she didn't like having to ask people to move so she could get through and she liked to board as quickly as she could when allocated a window seat. The young man was strikingly attractive, the perfectly structured face, and she couldn't quite decide whether his hair was artfully and meticulously styled to look like it was put together haphazardly or if it was actually put together haphazardly – with a close cut at the back of his head, a little longer on top and then longer floppy bangs. Whatever it was, he certainly wasn't hard to look at and rather than thinking of him as 'he', Gabriella decided to label him as Adonis.

Funnily enough, attractive guys didn't intimidate Gabriella. She dated a little, not a lot, but enough to not exactly consider herself pure as snow. Perhaps it was the fact that she never looked at really attractive guys like him and contemplated their dateability. Guys like Adonis were more likely to be seen with a big breasted, blonde supermodel on his arm. He had a small laptop open in front of him and was typing away furiously, not even acknowledging her presence. She stood practically staring at him for a moment, before shaking her head and breaking herself from the reverie. She reached up into the overhead locker, spying a small suitcase, a laptop case and a black peacoat spread out in the space that she presumed belonged to him. She rolled her eyes, pushed the items down and then made room for her own laptop case.

She gestured toward the window seat as she spoke in a pleasant, soft tone. "Excuse me, I'm seated there."

~ * ~

Troy was relieved to finally be on the plane. Although a part of him had been hoping for a flight cancellation, he was happy to not be in limbo. The sooner that he got on the plane, the sooner he'd get off the plane in Albuquerque and the sooner that he'd be able to get on with the depressing holiday. He'd pulled open his laptop, just wanting to jot down some thoughts for next year's marketing strategy he'd had while waiting in boredom in the airport terminal, and was typing away so furiously that he hadn't noticed one of his seat mates arrive and begin placing her items in the overhead lockers.

"Excuse me, I'm seated there," her soft, angelic voice informed him.

He looked up, immediately blinking. She was dressed in dark grey jeans and a black Burberry coat, not that he particularly was paying attention to her fashion choices. Rather, he was mesmerised by her cute button nose; plump, glossy lips; perfect white teeth; the ebony curls that cascaded down and framed her perfect face; her expressive light chocolate eyes. He managed some sort of a sound somewhere between a guffaw and a honk and a cough before smiling at her as best he could, and immediately standing up to move to the aisle to allow her to move into her seat. He took the opportunity to shut the lid of his laptop and return it to its case in the overhead cabin, meanwhile observing every move she made. She appeared to be well versed in travel, it took her just a few minutes to have her iPod Nano out and in the seat pocket along with a packet of gum, a magazine and a book. She'd pushed her purse under the seat in front of her and just as Troy took his seat once again, she began to take off her coat, revealing a simple black V-neck knit sweater. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she contemplated what to do with the coat, eventually folding it up and leaving it in her lap. He swallowed, searching deep within for his vocal chords there were capable of communicating in English rather than hybrid strange noises, and asked her politely, "Would you like me to put your coat in the overhead locker?"

She looked at him gratefully. "If you don't mind."

He held his hand out and took the jacket from her, carefully placing it up into the locker. He smiled as he compared his own jacket next to hers – they were a nice match, both black woollen peacoat style.

They sat in silence as passengers boarded the plane. An older man in similar dress to Troy – jeans, button down shirt, sports coat – sat in the aisle seat on the other side of Troy. He was grateful he'd lucked out with his seat mates, no crying babies or epic situations of BO. Glancing to his left, the Goddess like beauty had flicked open her magazine. It wasn't a trashy gossip rag; rather she had a copy of _The American Lawyer_ causing a slight twitch in Troy's denim clad crotch. She was beautiful and seemingly sweet and likely a lawyer? He knew plenty of people who had a certain ill preconceptions about lawyers, but Troy wasn't one of them. All he knew was that lawyer meant intelligence which to him was a turn on.

Troy flicked through the in flight magazine, not really finding anything of any kind of interest to him. He was getting a little impatient, the extra half hour of sitting around at the airport had been a bad start to the flight. He wasn't much of a sitting around doing nothing guy, and cabin fever was beginning to set in. All the passengers had settled into their seats, the flight attendants had gone around and completed their pre flight check and they should have began the safety demonstration – except it appeared that nothing was happening. People were beginning to peer around, the impatient vibe permeating throughout the cabin. Troy unbuckled his seat belt so he could stand up slightly and look around more clearly. The flight attendants were gathered up the front in a huddle. It seemed that Christmas being spent in his Manhattan East Village apartment alone was more and more likely.

~ * ~

Gabriella didn't know the exact length of time it had been since boarding, but she had travelled enough to know that this was not normal. That after the flight attendants went around ensuring bags were stored properly and seats were upright, the safety demonstration began while the plane went out to the runway. Not that they'd remain stationery, still at the gate.

She glanced over at Adonis, he too was peering around impatiently. Like her, she suspected he was likely heading home to spend the holidays with muchly missed family.

"Excuse me, do you have the time?" Gabriella asked him politely.

He looked straight at her for the first time – and she bit her lower lip. His cerulean eyes penetrated into hers – it was the first time she'd really observed just how incredible his gaze was. He spoke, but she didn't register at all.

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked, blushing furiously as she needed him to repeat himself.

He smirked slightly, but just repeated, "It's a little after six. Why?"

"Oh I... I have a connecting flight so I'm a little worried about this delay," she explained.

He nodded. "Me too."

She gnawed on her lower lip. "Sometimes they'll hold connecting flights, especially when they're with the same airline. But when its already a late night flight... I'm not sure if they will."

Adonis shrugged. "Honestly, there's not much that you can do about it until we know what is going on. I'm sure they'll let us know." He was about to ask her where she was headed on her connecting flight, distract the clearly anxious woman with small talk, when the soft 'ping pong' indicating an announcement was about to be made sounded through the speakers.

"Good evening passengers of United Flight 409 headed to Denver, Colorado. This is your Captain Edward Meyers speaking."

She observed Adonis rolling his eyes as the Captain proceeded to make an announcement apologising for the delay. Evidently some piece of equipment in the air traffic control tower was malfunctioning and combined with the less than perfect weather, they weren't able to clear any flights for landing or take off. A number of flights had been delayed at the airport from various carriers, not just theirs. They'd been cleared for boarding when they thought the equipment had began operating correctly but this had turned out to be incorrect and now there were a series of flights that had boarded but were grounded on the tarmac. "We're currently seventh in the aircraft queue, and at the moment the equipment is yet to be cleared again so our ETA for take-off is approximately thirty five minutes plus however long it takes for the equipment to the cleared."

Disgruntled passengers began to groan and sigh and bitch among themselves.

"Typical that they want to make this painful holiday even more painful," the man beside her grumbled.

"I'm not going to make it," she said glumly.

The head flight attendant came over the PA next, informing passengers they were allowed to use their cell phones and that those with connecting flights should let staff know immediately. Adonis whipped out his cell phone and started calling someone, while Gabriella used the call attendant buzzer, whipped out her flight itinerary from her purse and leaned across to hand it over.

"You don't understand, I _need_ to make this flight," she said, somewhat desperately.

The flight attendant bit her lip. "I won't lie to you, it's looking unlikely. United sometimes hold flights but with the delay that looks like it might be... I think it'll be more likely they'll try to reallocate you to a flight in the morning."

Gabriella sighed dejectedly. "But you'll make sure they are aware of my situation?"

The attendant nodded sympathetically. "I will."

She finished her conversion with the flight attendant and couldn't help but overhear the rest of the conversation taking place between the blue eyed Adonis and evidently his mother.

"Okay, okay Mama. I promise I'll find a way to be home," he said, rolling his eyes. "Well you might think that me sitting in my apartment alone is miserable but battling with the airlines to find an available connection isn't my ideal way to spend December 24th... yeah yeah, I'll look into that... yup, and that too... I'll let you know.... love you too... bye."

Gabriella pulled out her Blackberry, needing to let her own mother know about the situation. She switched it off – having flicked it onto flight mode – and then back on – and it promptly beeped at her with a battery empty message and the screen went to black.

"Argh!" she grunted with irritation, having to hold back from tossing the machine onto the floor.

~ * ~

Troy didn't even know her name and yet hearing that frustrated moan followed by a look of exasperation – leaning back against the headrest, head tilting back and eyes closing, attempting to calm herself – tugged at Troy somewhere inside. He hesitated, wondering if he should interfere, but instead figured that they could be sitting beside one another waiting in irritation for a while and so they might as well communicate.

"Are you okay?" he asked carefully.

He was looking at her sympathetically when she opened her eyes.

"My cell phone died," she informed him with an adorable pout. "And all I want is to be home for Christmas and I can't even call my mom to let her know what is going on."

He promptly reached into his jeans pocket and retrieved the iPhone he'd only just put away. "Call," he said simply.

The look of gratitude she gave him was pure. "Thank you."

She quickly dialled the number she needed. Troy felt rude blatantly listening in and so he picked up his in flight magazine again to flick through the pages – however he couldn't help but to hear every word of her conversation with her mother.

"Mom? It's Gabriella..." He smiled to himself. _Gabriella._ A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.

"My cell phone died, I'm calling from the cell phone of the guy sitting next to me... yeah I'm on the plane but we haven't taken off yet... I don't know what's going on, they're not telling us a lot. Something about malfunctioning machinery... oh no, not on our plane! In the traffic control tower. So we cannot take off... yeah, it sounds like I'm not going to make the connection... I guess so. They're finding out now for us. I think they don't even know if this thing will get fixed. They might have to cancel this first flight completely."

This wouldn't have particularly bothered Troy but this Gabriella woman seemed utterly devastated at the notion.

"But they have kept us on the plane so I guess they're hopeful... It's okay Mami... I'll find a hotel in Denver and surely I should be able to find a flight tomorrow, even if I have to fly first class... No! No you are _not_ driving to Denver to pick me up. It's like eight hours from Albuquerque. Sixteen hours return. If we were going to do that, I'd get a rental car and drive myself."

Troy perked up. _Albuquerque._ They were getting the same connecting flight. Or, supposed to be – it now seemed pretty unlikely. They'd already been delayed an hour so even if the plane lifted off that very moment, it would be a push to get there on time.

"I'll let you know. I'll borrow someone's cell, or I should be able to charge my phone or use a pay phone or whatever. Something. But I will _not _be missing Christmas, I promise."

She bid farewell to her mother and handed Troy back his cell phone. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome... Um... I couldn't help but overhear.... you're headed to Albuquerque?" Troy enquired.

"Well, trying to be," she said, rolling her eyes. "My mom lives there, and my aunt and uncle live nearby in northern Mexico right near the US border and we're having Christmas at my mom's."

He smiled. "Sounds fun. Obviously you're looking forward to it."

"I haven't seen my mom in a long time," she revealed with a small nod. "So yeah... I'm feeling rather antsy now."

"If it helps, I'm meant to be on that flight connecting to Albuquerque as well. So we're in the same boat."

She perked up. "Maybe they'll be more likely to hold the flight since there's at least two of us?'

Troy winced. He honestly wasn't hopeful for that, but he didn't want to put a damper on her optimism so he simple shrugged and said, "Who knows?"

"Um so... did you used to live in Albuquerque?" Gabriella asked.

Troy nodded. "Born and bred. I came to New York for college, haven't left since."

"Wow. I've lived all over the US and even in Vancouver for a little while but never in the south west. My mom moved to Albuquerque not long after I finished high school. She almost got transferred in my junior year but we moved to Chicago instead."

"Wow, we might've met and everything if you'd moved there," Troy said with a smirk.

"Maybe," she said with a smile. "You never know."

"So you're living in New York now, I guess?" Troy asked.

She nodded. "Yup, in Greenwich Village."

"You live in Greenwich? I live in East Village," he said, genuinely surprised. He'd picked her to be more of an uptown girl, or maybe Chelsea.

She smiled. "Small world, huh? Do you work in the city?"

He nodded. "In PR. And... I am gonna guess that you're a lawyer."

"How did you know that?" she asked suspiciously.

"You give off that vibe," Troy deadpanned. Her eyes widened and then he said quickly, "I was kidding. You've got that magazine there," he said, gesturing to her seat pocket. "I don't know of anyone who would voluntarily read that shit."

She laughed. "You make an excellent point there."

Their conversation was interrupted by a soft 'ping pong' over the PA and the captain came back over the speaker – with the good news that they were cleared to begin take-offs, that the first in the queue had just taken off and so now they were officially half an hour from take-off, and would begin taxi-ing out to their runway in approximately fifteen minutes. Cheers burst out throughout the aircraft.

The dark haired beauty grabbed onto his arm excitedly. "Oh thank God, finally!"

"Now we just have to find out what is gonna happen in Denver, I guess."

Her expression soured slightly. "My back up plan is to rent a car and drive down."

"That's not a bad idea," Troy said seriously. "I was thinking about renting a car for my time in Albuquerque anyway, if you weren't. We could share."

She grinned. "So, grab a hotel tonight, set out bright and early tomorrow. We'll be there by 3?"

"Exactly."

"Perfect. Although I'm really just hoping to be reallocated to another flight."

He laughed. "Yeah, that's my preference too."

"But it's nice to have a back up and to know that with the back up comes some good company..." Gabriella trailed off. "Oh my God, I just realised I haven't introduced myself! I'm Gabriella."

"I know," Troy said, and at the confused expression on her face he elaborated, "I heard you say that to your mother."

"Oh." She was looking at him expectantly, Troy not realising what she was waiting for immediately – but then clueing in. "Oh! Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I'm Troy." He stuck out his hand and with soft palms, the two shook hands.

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

The flight attendant that Gabriella had spoken to earlier arrived back to hover over them at that point. "So, I have both seats 23A and B registered as passengers travelling thorugh to Albuquerque today, yes?" Gabriella and Troy both confirmed this. "The good news is that we have been able to reallocate both of you to another flight to depart first thing in the morning, it is a 6am flight."

"Right now, that sounds wonderful," Gabriella said.

"Excellent. Now, I cannot guarantee that you will be able to sit together but..."

"Oh that's..." Troy was about to interrupt and explain that they weren't actually together, but then stopped himself. "That's okay. See what they can do, if they can't it's okay."

~ * ~

The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful. Troy and Gabriella chatted at various points, exclaimed over the putrid in flight meal, had a couple of wines 'in the Christmas spirit'; and would at other times do their own thing, reading, listening to music, Troy pulling down his laptop to do a little more work. In Denver he waited with her while she retrieved her luggage and they headed over to the motel together. A part of him was hoping for limited vacancy and that they'd be forced to share but there were no problems with obtaining a room each. It was late and their flight was early so they bid one another farewell, disappearing into their rooms down opposite ends of a corridor from one another.

Troy swung by her room the following morning at 4:45am feeling more than a little bleary eyed.

"Merry Christmas Eve," he greeted her, punctuating the sentence with a yawn.

How she managed to look absolutely gorgeous on little sleep in a strange bed was beyond him, but she looked absolutely amazing in her light wash skinny leg jeans and white blouse.

"Merry Christmas Eve," she chirped back enthusiastically. She tucked her hair behind her ear and he smiled at the sight of a reindeer earring swishing backwards and forwards. "Ready to go? Don't want to miss the flight."

There was no in flight meal service on the plane from Denver to Albuquerque and so they each grabbed a coffee and pastry at the coffee shop in the departure terminal. On mutual agreement the evening before they'd decided to surprise their families, having called and told them they were flying in later that day. In reality, there had been no delays with their morning flight and so they were out the front of the airport in Albuquerque grabbing a can before 8am. They decided to split the cost, having talked about their mothers homes and realising they were in approximately the same vicinity of the city.

There was a part of Troy that was wishing for a traffic jam. The end of the ride to Gabriella's house was not something he was looking forward to – a few hours of chatting to this woman on a plane and he already felt a sudden attachment to her, an attachment that was so strong that he couldn't comprehend waving her goodbye and never seeing her again. However the cab drove along swiftly, making excellent time, and earlier than he'd anticipated they were pulling up outside of the address that Gabriella had reeled off for the driver. Troy rushed around, beating the cab driver to the trunk to help pull out Gabriella's suitcase. He set it upon the bitumen and pulled up the handle for her. Gabriella attempted to give Troy money for the fare which he refused to take, and Gabriella then shoved the twenty at the cab driver and requested he deduct it from the total at the end of the trip.

Troy rolled his eyes, and then glanced at the driver who was waiting expectantly. "I'll just be a minute," Troy said pointedly.

The driver shrugged. "The meter is rolling," he informed them, and returned to the drivers seat.

Troy turned to Gabriella. Obviously she was anxious to get inside, and out of principle he didn't want to leave the meter running forever – so there was no time to beat around the bush.

"Listen... I uh... I'd um... I'd like to see you again," he said, somewhat hesitantly.

Maybe he was out of line with the request. But it wasn't that often in life that you randomly were seated next to someone on a flight who you got along with brilliantly, you felt an attraction to, whose family was in the same city, and who you lived in the same district as.

And more importantly – he didn't want this to be a one off encounter.

"I think I'd like that too," she replied, also shyly, but with a definitive nod. She was feeling the exact same way – that it had been a slightly fated encounter and that she wasn't going to turn a blind eye to fates interventions.

She fished her Blackberry out of her purse, the pair quickly exchanging cell phone information to place into each other's phones. Gabriella then also produced a business card in her wallet.

"Um... just in case something was to go wrong with your phone or... something," she said slightly hesitantly, and handed it over to him.

He grinned. "You really are a planner."

She blushed. "You've already learnt my biggest vice."

"I'll give you a call in a couple of days and we might be able to catch up while I'm still here in Albuquerque, if we've both got time. Otherwise definitely in the new year when we're both back in Manhattan, it would be great to grab a drink or coffee or whatever."

"Sounds fantastic."

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Merry Christmas, Gabriella."

"Merry Christmas, Troy."

~ * ~

The first ten minutes back inside his house were wonderful. All complaints aside, Troy loved his mother and father – it was just the whole extended Christmas hoopla that he was somewhat cynical about. And the Bolton household indeed was host to an extended hoopla, the residence filled to the maximum for the Christmas period with aunt, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Not only were they hosting Christmas lunch the following day, but they were also hosting a holiday party for their neighbourhood as well as various colleagues and friends they'd invited. Preparations were in full swing – Troy's mother and her sisters gathered in the kitchen preparing food, chopping and cutting and mixing. They'd insisted on Troy staying with them – refusing to let him help, which he was fine with – and what started as an innocent chat about his life in Manhattan became an interrogation about his love life and potential future members for the Bolton family, and he remembered exactly why he so abhorred these joint family occasions.

"Mama, I've been here an hour and you're already complaining," Troy whined. "I'm only 28. Maybe you should feel grateful that I'm not making you a grandmother before you're 50."

"It won't be long until I'm 50, Troy Alexander," Lucille Bolton chided. "And I'd expect you to be with a woman six months before getting engaged, having at least a six month engagement, and then waiting a little while before starting a family. You're no spring chicken, in less than two years you'll be 30!"

Troy rolled his eyes. "You're right, I am no spring chicken. In fact I think I might've seen a grey hair earlier," he deadpanned.

"Don't joke about that, I got some grey hairs when I was barely 30," Jack Bolton said sombrely from his place at the bench twisting off the lids of bottles of beer. He'd entered the room in time to hear his wife's speech.

"Don't worry Lucy, Troy here probably has dozens of women to pick from, he's just being picky," his aunt Sophia said with a wink.

"So I know that you're going to hate this idea, but hear me out, Troy," Lucille said carefully. One of my colleages has a daughter about your age..."

"No!" Troy exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "I live in New York, Mama, there is absolutely no point in you trying to set me up with some random chick."

"But she lives..."

"I don't care!"

Troy stood, abandoning his place in the dining room with his mother and her sisters. He snagged one of the bottles of beer his father had just opened and headed into the living room where his uncles were sitting around with a football game on TV.

"Who is winning?"

~ * ~

"Why do you care so much about me looking nice for tonight? You said we're just dropping by to say hello, didn't you?" Gabriella said, slightly confused.

Her mother had been invited to a holiday party by one of her colleagues, and Gabriella had been agreeable to going along with her mother. However after the torrid travel experiences of the last twenty four hours, Gabriella wasn't particularly in the mood to style her hair or wear make-up. She was more than content wearing her blue jeans, white tank top and red cardigan, with a swipe of lip gloss across her lips.

"I just think we women feel more confident when we're dressed up a little," Maria said with a smile, mascara wand in hand.

"You think I'm lacking in confidence that I'm going to need?" Gabriella asked, eyebrow quirked.

"Mija, indulge your mother. It's Christmas. Just a little mascara and eye shadow, that is all," Maria requested.

Gabriella sighed. "Fine."

Maria smiled triumphantly. "You'll thank me later," she said knowingly.

"What is that supposed to mean?" the younger Montez asked suspiciously.

"Nothing. Now sit still and it won't take long."

~ * ~

Gabriella stood closely by her mother's side as they wandered around this stranger's house. Gabriella couldn't help but feel as though she needed more than mascara and eye shadow to feel confident - a shot of tequila might be more appropriate. They'd been let into the house by Jack, her mother's colleagues husband, and he was leading them into the kitchen where he'd last seen his wife.

"Lucille!" her mother called out excitedly.

Gabriella couldn't help but smile at the sight of her mother greeting the brunette woman with an excited hug. For so many years following her parents' divorce, her mother had been fairly reclusive, cutting herself off from not only men but friendships in general. It was hard for Gabriella living so many miles away – but it warmed her heart to know that her mother had finally been able to build a life for herself somewhere, with a friendship group and support network.

"This is my daughter, Gabriella. Gabriella, this is Lucille," Maria introduced the women.

Lucille greeted Gabriella with a small hug. "I've heard so much about you sweetheart and I can tell you that the pictures don't do you justice."

Gabriella blushed furiously and stammered out a somewhat awkward thank you.

"If you'll just excuse me for a moment..." Lucille said, giving Maria a small wink.

"What is going on?" Gabriella asked her mother.

"Um, nothing, sweetheart," Maria said, however lying was not one of her talents.

"Yeah right..."

A moment later, Gabriella heard a familiar male voice protesting, "Mama, I didn't come here for Christmas for you to match make and meddle in my life!"

With a broad beaming smile, Lucille pushed her son forward. "Gabriella I'd like you to meet my..."

"Troy?" Gabriella said, slightly in disbelief.

The look of irritation that had flooded his perfect features moments earlier melted away and morphed into a look of pleasant surprise. "Gabriella!"

Suddenly, the pair understood what their mothers were doing – reflecting internally that it was entirely unnecessary.

"You know each other?" Maria asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Um... yes," Gabriella said elusively, not elaborating.

Troy held out his hand to Gabriella. "Come," he requested softly.

She was all too willing to take a hold of his hand and allow him to pull her away from the safety of her mother's side.

~ * ~

They wandered around the party hand in hand, talking comfortably about their days with their family – Gabriella's a quiet loving reunion with her mother, the rest of her family driving up in the morning; Troy's an equally loving but not so quiet reunion with extended family. They retrieved a glass of holiday punch each – decorated with cherries and Christmas tree shaped ice cubes – and immediately after pouring the drinks, their hands naturally remaining entwined. He led her out into the living room, Gabriella gravitating over the mantelpiece above the fireplace to coo at the younger photos of Troy.

"Aww, your hair is all floppy!" she said with a grin.

He rolled his eyes. "It got a bit out of control in my first year of college. It was like a beast. I got it cut, and haven't looked back since."

"Hey Troy!" one of Troy's cousins called out from across the room.

He glanced over and saw Angelique gesturing above him to where a rather significant decoration was hanging from the ceiling. Gabriella ducked her head, blushing slightly. He smiled, and turned back to her. His index and middle fingers tipped her chin up to look at him.

"Is this mistletoe or holly?" Troy asked quietly, glancing up at the decoration.

"Truthfully? I don't really care," she responded, giving him a small smile of encouragement and stepping in closer.

"You don't care? As in either way you'll slap me if I kiss you right now?"

"I don't care as in if you don't kiss me right now I'll kiss you."

It was the perfect first kiss. Soft lips, light probing tongue, gentle hands caressing necks. Expressions were dazed as they pulled apart, lips upturning lightly in excitement. It was one of those first kisses where you just know intrinsically that it is the first of many kisses. A kiss can serve to support the chemistry that you already know exists. The rest of the room drifted away – the meddling mothers that were spying, Troy's younger second cousins that were pretending to gag in the corner. His hand remained rested upon her neck as they gazed at one another, before his warm fingertips ran down the length of her slender arm and his fingers came to entwine with hers.

"So you know when I said earlier that I'd call you in a couple of days?" he murmured.

"Yeah?"

"I might call you like... five minutes after you leave tonight. And then before you go to sleep tonight. And then in the morning."

She giggled, blushing furiously. "I think I'll be more than fine with that."

~ * ~* ~

_**Later on, we'll conspire,  
As we dream by the fire  
To face unafraid,  
The plans that we've made,  
Walking in a winter wonderland.**_


End file.
